Mangrove Revegetation Potentials of Brackish-Water Pond Areas in the Philippines - Aquaculture and the Environment: A Shared Destiny - page 45

4.4 For ponds with expired FLAs and production is suboptimal and not necessary,
revert to mangrove areas thru natural revegetation or assisted planting (Samson and
Rollon, 2008)
As mentioned earlier, under productivity of the pond may be brought about by the
inappropriateness of the site for fish production (Stevenson et al, 1999). Problems such as
the lack of supply of water and sedimentation may cause fish production to go down to
unsustainable level. If this is the case, the site can be properly assessed for reversion to its
original habitat. Natural revegetation will require much less labor and financial output as
compared to assisted planting, however, there are cases when the site's modification will
not anymore allow the recruitment and settlement of mangrove propagules in the area. As
of 2007, there are around 39t hectares of brackish-water ponds with expired FLAs.
Revegetating these ponds will greatly increase the percentage of rehabilitation efforts in the
Philippines. Provinces with 85 to 100% of expired FLAs are Antique, Maguindanao, Lanao
del Norte, Palawan, Basilan, Sulu, Davao Oriental, Sultan Kudarat, Northern Samar and
Camarines Sur.
4.5 For active titled ponds, apply aqua-silviculture
Primavera in 2000 estimated that there are around 230t hectares of mangroves which had
been converted to brackish-water ponds, using this number and subtracting the areas listed
with FLA (59, 293), it will give us an estimate of around 74% (170,707 hectares) brackish-
water ponds which are titled or undocumented. For these titled ponds, the management
strategies will not be straightforward as the utilization of titled ponds rely greatly on its
owners. The most rational option for these active title ponds is to sustainably operate the
ponds to maximize the production potential of the area. Incentive mechanisms may be
institutionalized to encourage titled pond owners to apply the two options most especially if
these ponds are idle. These may be in the form of tax incentives and awards for sustainable
operation, technical assistance to optimize production, and provision of seedlings for
revegetation and others. One of the strategies that may benefit both the pond operators and
government will be aqua-silviculture (Melana et al 2000a & b). Aquasilviculture promotes
the mix of sustainable pond operation and the revegetation of some parts of the brackish-
water ponds (Melana et al 2000a & b). Although this culture practice has been and are being
practiced in some parts of the country (i.e. Aklan; Quezon), its ecological and economic
benefits are not yet fully realized.
4.6 For idle titled ponds, fish yield may be optimized but pond size as in option 2 may
be reduced to as small as possible and revert unutilized areas to mangrove forest
The option of revegetating idle ponds will greatly benefit pond operators and coastal
communities as this may bring back mangrove goods and services and may potentially be a
supplemental source of livelihood. One of the important mangrove services that the pond
operators may consider is coastal protection. In the light of the looming impacts of climate
change, mangroves will play a pivotal role in mitigating tsunami, strong waves and coastal
erosion (Alongi, 2002, 2008; Dahdouh-Geubas et al, 2005; Gilman, 2006, 2008; Mc Leod &
Salm, 2006; UNEP-WCMC, 2006).
Proper accounting and management of all brackish-water ponds in the country should be a
top priority. A comprehensive and proper accounting of these titled ponds may help the